Art of Supply

"The only way we can find out what a person is capable of doing is to give that person the opportunity of trying and the responsibility of producing results." James E. Casey, co-founder of UPS, 1948
The quote above sounds like the philosophy of a patient, generous boss. But according to Marc Levinson's new book, The UPS Man, the same man built a company where managers understood they were to "ignore the limits of the law, if necessary" to force out competitors and keep customers.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner explains why everyone in supply chain and logistics should read it, covering:
- How UPS mastered centralization and scale decades before anyone called it logistics, and why it had no choice
- The long, creative and sometimes shaky relationship between UPS and the rules, including the Interstate Commerce Commission
- The gap between the UPS story most of us know and the one Levinson pieced together without the company's help
 
Links:
The UPS Man: James E. Casey and the Creation of Modern Logistics, by Marc Levinson: https://a.co/d/0avyw6Qy 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"TQL and C.H. Robinson set the price and illegal carriers accept these bargain-basement bids often with no questions asked." - Stevens Trucking Co., et al. v. C.H. Robinson Company, Inc., d/b/a C.H. Robinson Worldwide, et al., Case No. 2:26-cv-00869, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Marshall Division)
That's the accusation at the center of a federal racketeering lawsuit six family-owned trucking companies filed in September against two of the largest freight brokers in the country. According to the lawsuit, some TQL loads were posted at $1.60 a mile, at a time when ATRI puts the average cost to run a truck at $2.33 a mile. The carriers say the price itself is the proof. The brokers say the market sets the price, and the plaintiffs simply lost to a lower bidder.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner covers:
 - What the carriers are accusing C.H. Robinson and TQL of, and why they reached for a law built to fight the mob
 - How the brokers are firing back, from "no freight broker sets rates" to a push to move the case to Ohio
 - Why a 2006 Supreme Court case about unpaid sales tax may decide whether this lawsuit survives at all
 
Links:
The $604 Million Freight Broker Liability Verdict: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-the-604-million-freight-broker-liability-verdict 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

On Sunday, September 27, the most-tracked flight in the world wasn't carrying a single traditional passenger.
FedEx flight FX9756 left Chengdu, China, with two giant pandas aboard, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, bound for a 10-year stay at Zoo Atlanta. The pair was billed as an envoy of friendship between China and the U.S., but behind the photo op was a door-to-door logistics operation that started months before takeoff: a federal permit, a month of crate training, a dedicated Boeing 777 freighter, a police escort, and a team of people on both sides of the Pacific.
In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner cover:
- The federal paper trail required before two bears listed as endangered under U.S. law could legally make the trip
 - How you move live cargo by truck, plane and truck again without stressing it out
- The people who traveled with the pandas, and the ones who got to Atlanta first
 
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"When you call it a pilot, we realized that it basically puts a label on it so that it's not on the critical path. It's not actually real work." - Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Atlas Robotics
Warehouses are not easy places to work - for people or for robots. Pallet labels end up on the wrong corner. Someone leaves an empty pallet in the middle of the floor. The plan changes 30 seconds after it's made. In a warehouse, exception is the rule, and that's why most warehouses are still unautomated despite decades of progress in robotics.
In this episode, I speak with Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Atlas Robotics, about what physical AI changes, and why the way companies test warehouse robots may be setting them up to fail before they start.
LIsten in to hear Çetin and Kelly Barner discuss,
- Why physical AI is more than a new name for traditional automation
- The ordinary warehouse moments that people handle without thinking, and that robots find hardest
- Why Atlas runs "probation" deployments instead of pilots, and how success is defined before day one
Links:
Çetin Meriçli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cetinmericli/ 
Atlas Robotics: https://www.atlas-robotics.com/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

"Decisions regarding specific authorizations will not be made publicly available." — U.S. Commerce Department, Connected Vehicle Rule
Two cars come off the same assembly line in South Carolina. They have the same software stack, according to the company that builds one of them. Starting with model year 2027, the Volvo EX90 can keep being sold in the United States. The Polestar 3 can't.
Both companies are owned by China's Geely. Commerce won't say why one passed and one failed, and under its own rule, it doesn't have to.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
- Why the auto supply chain's dependence on China is so hard to unwind, from the hardware all the way down to the source code
- How two companies under the same Chinese parent got opposite answers from Washington
- Why Ford's China-built Lincoln Nautilus suddenly didn't need permission, and what Congress wants to do next
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe